Moving into East Jerusalem

Moving into East Jerusalem
An EU report criticizes Israeli expansion into the annexed part of
the capital.

By Ilene R. Prusher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

JERUSALEM ? Shoe-horned into the slopes of Sheikh Jarah, an Arab
neighborhood in East Jerusalem, is the newer Jewish enclave Shimon
Hatzadik, or Simon the Righteous.
The 40 Israeli residents, guarded by a privately hired gunman, may
soon have more compatriots just around the bend if the Shepherd's
Hotel, a forlorn, century-old building, is demolished and replaced
with 90 housing units, as planned.

The reason the newcomers came is the same reason the longtime
residents would like to see them leave: The more Jews who settle in
East Jerusalem Arab neighborhoods such as these, the less likely it
is that Palestinians will be able to build the capital of their hoped-
for state here.

The Israelis, aided by ultranationalist groups that buy up Arab
properties and by the tacit support of the government, see themselves
as pioneers. But Palestinians see them as settlers - and the European
Union, soon to release a controversial report attacking "the
construction and expansion of illegal settlements, by private
entities and the Israeli government, in and around East Jerusalem" -
appears to agree.

The report, leaked to the press, sharply criticizes the growth of
Israeli enclaves in East Jerusalem neighborhoods that surround the
Old City, as well as Israeli plans to build up the "E1" area, a tract
of land between Jerusalem and the East Jerusalem settlement of Maale
Adumim. Such Israeli expansion, critics argue, will cut off
Palestinian areas in the West Bank from each other and from East
Jerusalem, where Palestinians hope to build their capital.

"Several inter-linked Israeli policies are reducing the possibility
of reaching a final status agreement on Jerusalem, and demonstrate a
clear Israeli intention to turn the annexation of East Jerusalem into
a concrete fact," the draft EU report states, citing the ongoing
construction of the security barrier, which runs over the Green Line,
Israel's pre-1967 boundary, into the West Bank.

In a separate report issued Thursday, the prominent Israeli human
rights group Btselem presented what the group said was evidence that
the wall's route was making way for settlement expansion in the
territories, rather than focusing exclusively on security. That
conclusion seemed to be supported by a key member of Ariel Sharon's
government, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, whose spokesman said
Thursday that the borders of a future Palestinian state would be
similar to the line drawn by the security barrier.

The EU report, scheduled to be released Dec. 12, comes at a complex
time, with EU-Israel ties just beginning to improve. While European
involvement in recent years was dismissed by Israel as overtly pro-
Palestinian, the Israeli government recently acquiesced to putting
European monitors at Rafah, the border crossing between Egypt and
Gaza.

"There was a perception of governments, both Likud and Labor, that
the Europeans automatically come down on the other side," says
Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mark Regev, who notes that Israeli
officials have not received any such report from the EU, but have
only read about it in the media.

"The Europeans were very involved in the Gaza [border crossings]
agreement," Mr. Regev adds, explaining that they've been able to play
more of a role because "they've been more balanced."

Israeli government officials are also quick to point out that East
Jerusalem, formally annexed by Israel in 1980, is by Israeli law part
of the nation's capital. But that annexation was not recognized by
most of the international community - the US included. During her
trip here last month, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the
Bush administration had "been very clear that there should be no
activities that prejudge a final status agreement."

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), a group of
peace activists, argues that the current growth in East Jerusalem
does just that.

"A viable Palestinian state has to include [East] Jerusalem," says
Jeff Halper, an anthropologist and ICAHD's coordinator. "Up to 40
percent of the Palestinian economy is dependent on it. If you cut
Jerusalem out - and that's what plans like E1 are doing - you're
cutting the economic heart out of any Palestinian state.

"I would read this document as a panic document," he adds. "These
[settlements] are ... ending any possibility of a two-state option,
and unless we act very quickly, we will beyond the point of changing
it."

Some here would argue that the lessons of Israel's disengagement
plan - which pulled some 8,000 Jewish settlers out of Gaza after a 38-
year Israeli occupation - demonstrated that even "facts on the
ground" are not necessarily irreversible. Still, given Jewish
religious ties to Jerusalem and broad political support for keeping
Jerusalem as Israel's undivided capital, moving Israelis out of East
Jerusalem would be a far trickier task than moving them out of Gaza.

In the hilltop compound of Shimon Hatzadik, most people distrust the
media. "I'm not interested in being interviewed," says a young mother
hurrying past with a child in tow. Just around the corner, the
shuttered Shepherd's Hotel is guarded by a few Palestinians who say
they work for Irwin Moskowitz, an American businessman who has
purchased several properties in East Jerusalem so that Jews could
move into Arab neighborhoods.

More than a dozen small Jewish enclaves exist, or are under
construction, inside or next to Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem,
according to various left-wing Israeli groups which oppose - and
therefore track - all attempts of Jewish groups to move into such
neighborhoods.

"What should I do?" says the head guard, who would only give his
first name, Youssef. "I didn't have other work and I have to feed my
family."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1202/p06s02-wome.html